Japan July aluminium stocks flat at 202,300 tonnes

TOKYO, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Aluminium stocks at three major Japanese ports edged down 0.2 percent, or 500 tonnes, to 202,300 tonnes at the end of July from a month earlier, an official at Marubeni Corp said on Thursday.

But that estimate of aluminium stocks at the key ports of Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka marked a 17 percent drop from the figure a year ago of 243,200 tonnes.
Shipments may have risen in July on demand for drink cans as the summer heat set in, the official said. More aluminium mayalso have been used for air conditioning equipment, he said. But the demand outlook is clouded by uncertainty over the automobile and construction sectors, aluminium traders said.

Toyota Motor Corp, the world's biggest automaker, and Honda Motor Co cut their sales forecasts in July as they battle rising costs and a crumbling U.S. auto market.

Construction demand has been falling due to tighter building rules introduced by the government a year ago after a scandalover falsified engineering data on apartment blocks.

In addition, sales of new apartments have been slumping as higher prices ward off buyers.

The number of new apartments put up for sale in the Tokyo area came to 3,554 units in July, down 44.5 percent from the same month a year earlier, falling for the 11th straight month, the Real Estate Economic Institute said on Thursday.

Following are details of Japanese aluminium stocks, including month-on-month and year-on-year comparisons (in tonnes):

	Yokohama	Nagoya	Osaka	total
Jul-31	91400	98300	12600	202300
Jun-30	93500	94800	14500	202800
May-31	87500	97200	12000	196700
End-July 2007	121200	109000	13000	243200
End-July 2007	121200	109000	13000	243200